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12 January 2016

Too Soon for Reforming the Political System

What is the likelihood of success for President Obama's call in his 2016 State of the Union address for reform of the country's political system?  His appeal for easier voting processes (Internet voting?) and for elimination of state majority party control of voting district definition are going to be long, drawn-out affairs, if they are ever undertaken.  The status quo is much too advantageous to the parties in power to be sacrificed to a crusading lame-duck White House occupant. 

If President Obama wishes to insert his waning public infuence into the 2016 election in order to reform the political system, he'd better get started.  It is not likely that Hilary Clinton would join forces with him and threaten her establishment support; so Senator Bernie Sanders would have to be the vehicle for pushing these reforms, unless Obama were to wait until the election is over.  It's probably wisest not to confuse the Presidential Election campaign with such a transformative issue, anyway. 

Therefore, if the 2016 State of the Union address signals any Presidential policy for Obama's last year in office, it only says that he will fight to maintain what he believes to have been his legacies up to now--like preserving ObamaCare, re-establishing Cuba diplomatic relations, implementing the Iranian nuclear deal, and closing Guantanamo (?). 

02 January 2016


Obama’s Closing Strategy on Iran

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, showed that at least between them the common interest of their two countries was best served by ignoring the idle threat of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to develop a nuclear weapon and reaching a mutual accord that will return U.S.-Iran commercial relations to the limited openness that prevailed in 2005.  President Barack Obama has apparently decided temporarily to disregard Iran’s recent violation of international prohibitions on building ballistic missiles in order not to jeopardize implementation of the nuclear deal.  Together these steps are probably enough to considerably relax restraints on trade between the two countries without formal approval by either the U.S. Congress or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.  It is up to the electorate in each country, which ultimately is credited with having final say in these matters, to make these steps lasting.

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